The U.S. government has issued another travel advisory

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The U.S. government has issued another travel advisory to Americans venturing across the El Paso border into Mexico after the latest violence in the Ciudad Juarez area claimed the lives of eight U.S. children and teens, a U.S. marshal and a Mormon dual citizen active in protesting killings and kidnappings.

About 50 Americans have been slain in Juarez since 2004. Most died in the last 18 months, according to information from the U.S. State Department and border coverage compiled by the Houston Chronicle.
‘Dramatic increase'

“There has been a dramatic increase in drug related violence ... and there is no indication that the situation will improve in the near future,” says the advisory issued by the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez. “American citizens are not being targeted, however U.S. citizenship provides no protection from the violence. The U.S. Consulate General urges all Americans to carefully consider the risk and necessity of all travel to Ciudad Juarez and within the state of Chihuahua.”

The latest advisory came days after the killing of Benjamin “Benji” Le-Baron, 31, a lifelong resident of Colonia Le Baron, a breakaway Mormon enclave of 1,000 in Chihuahua. LeBaron had become an outspoken activist against crime after the previous abduction for ransom in May of his 16-year-old brother, who was eventually released. Killed alongside Le Baron July 7 was his brother-in-law, Luis “Wicho” Widmar, 29, a martial arts practitioner who died fighting attackers. Both victims were dual citizens of the United States and Mexico.

At least eight U.S. citizen children and teenagers also have been killed in 2009 in the violence that grips Juarez and surrounding areas.
Record epidemic

In April, 4-year-old Mary Jean Gamboa and her 12-year-old brother, Ignacio Melero, were trapped and killed when a gunfight erupted around them on a major thoroughfare. Three other youths were killed in June alone.

The slayings are part of a record-breaking epidemic that continues in Juarez despite a massive buildup in 2008 by Mexican military forces. More than 1,100 homicides have been reported so far in 2009. The military “cannot be everywhere all the time and the drug dealers eventually learn their patterns,” said Tony Payan, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso who studies the problem.

Payan said it is a “stroke of luck” that more American citizens have not been killed.

“There are probably anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 American citizens living in Ciudad Juarez,” he said. The growing number of casualties “should not be a surprise, although still a terrible thing.”

lise.olsen@chron.com

More info : http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6544922.html